Ricken's (Sometimes Lame) Adventures
by True to No Extent
Summary: Follow Ricken as he tries to prove himself to his comrades while avoiding bloodthirsty soldiers, thick AI, confused Einherjar and Robin's attempts to select his bride!
1. What Is This Even

Another attempt at my storytelling, I'll get this eventually.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem, characters and locations belong to Nintendo and IS.

"Ricken, how could you not think something like this through?!" Ricken was currently in the middle of the Plegian forces, attempting to get Maribelle down to the rest of the Shepherds after rescuing the troubadour, though hadn't counted on the enemy surrounding them so quickly.

"Sorry, I thought we'd just have a straight path to Chrom and everyone else! It's no problem; I'll just fight through the guys blocking the base of the slope." He replied, not realizing until looking past the screaming blonde to see he'd die in about two hits from any of the soldiers approaching them.

Ricken sighed and wondered just how he got himself into this situation.

_Yesterday evening…_

_Chrom and the rest of the Shepherds were heading out to meet with Gangrel and try to rescue Maribelle, before being stopped by Ricken._

"_Captain! I'm all packed! When do we leave?!"_

"_Ricken? How did you… Go back inside, you're not old enough for this mission."_

_Absolutely baffled, Ricken just stared at Chrom as he wondered if he was serious about that claim. Being around the same age as Lissa and assuming that Robin was hardly any older than he was, the statement made absolutely no sense to him and he was quick to protest. "But, captain! You know my skill with magic! You know I can handle myself!"_

"_I'd be safer with your magic here, protecting the garrison. All right? We're off then. Be good."_

_Ricken watched as Chrom left with the others, ready to scream after Chrom's last comment. " 'Be good'? Gods, how old does he think I am? Well, I'll show him just how good I can be!" with that said, Ricken took off and went on a different path than the Shepherds were taking, planning to rescue Maribelle and prove his worth to Chrom at last._

_Present_

Trying to ignore how screwed he was if they stayed up any longer, Ricken began casting Elwind like mad, hoping to take out as many Plegian soldiers as he could with blind fury. When he finally stopped, the young mage was shocked to discover that all he did was knock over a myrmidon and mess up Maribelle's hair. While the other spells did scatter the enemy, none of them were seriously wounded. As he was readying to fire another Elwin, he stopped and thought of a better plan, one that gave both him and Maribelle a higher chance of living. He looked down at the other Shepherds, noticing that Robin already made short work of the barbarian standing at the top of the path leading to the others. Without thinking of what she'd do to him afterwards, Ricken slapped the hind end of Maribelle's horse, causing it to charge straight at their tactician with its rider shouting some rather profound things at him. He then turned and ran as fast as he could from the Plegian soldiers charging at him, jumping right off the edge and barely landed on Sumia's ascending Pegasus. Now that he had a moment to breath, he looked over to see that Maribelle had calmed her horse down enough to bring herself behind a startled Robin and pair herself with Chrom. Breathing a sigh of relief, he looked over to Sumia, who was still shocked that he was able to save Maribelle and not die from the stunt he just pulled.

"Th-that… that was amazing!" Sumia yelled to Ricken as she continued to make her way toward the enemy forces. She helped Ricken get properly seated on her mount, and then considered something about what he'd just done. "Well, not trying to put you down, but I was heading up to support you anyway, so that jump was a little unnecessary. B-but it was still all so brave of you!"

The two were back at Ricken's previous position, this time with the strength needed to take on the enemy. Ricken looked back to the others, fear welling up inside him as he considered what both Maribelle would do to him after the battle. He pushed that thought aside and decided to just focus on the battle. Since Sumia was already taking care of everything that charged at them, all he really had to do was cast an occasional Elwind and try to stay out of the way. It went like that until the wyvern riders started attacking them, most decided to head straight for Sumia solely for the weapon triangle advantage. She glanced over at Ricken and nodded, telling him immediately what she was implying. The mage stepped forward, effectively making him the leader of their pair and turned his hat around (basically just making the tip point forward instead of behind him) and began casting Elwind. It made direct contact with the first rider, nearly taking him out right then and there, but he hung on just long enough to meet the end of Sumia's lance. The next rider tried dodging the spell, only to realize that wind magic was horribly accurate and just ended up taking the hit anyway. Having no time to attack the last approaching rider, Ricken just settled for trying to keep his distance. He was just barely able to jump out of the way of an axe swung at him, then countered with another Elwind that did considerable damage to the rider, leaving Sumia to finish him off.

"Wow, we do pretty well together, shame we can't support," Ricken remarked, realizing all they accomplished in that time. Sumia nodded, and the two continued the battle. Looking behind them, Ricken finally realized that everyone else was still running after them. He nudged Sumia, and she turned around to see exactly that, and looked nervously over to the rest of the team. She started heading back over, but noticed a second later they were being pursued by the commander of the now mutilated force, a rather ugly looking wyvern rider that none of the Shepherds remembered the name of.

"Oh c'mon, why are we the first ones he's after?" Sumia just continued down to everyone else and finally managed to slip behind Chrom and Maribelle, luring the Plegian commander to an unavoidable death from Falchion. Chrom started to charge at the boss with Sully by his side, but was stopped by Robin, who was worried that fighting alongside Sully for too long would prevent the army from setting up the "optimal pairings", but everyone else just thought she was getting carried away with who she thought was a cute couple. With the opposing force dealt with, Sumia and Ricken finally had a chance to breath.

"Hey, hey, hey Chrom! Hey! Hey! Was I good or what? Huh? I proved myself, didn't I? Now can I start going on real missions? May I have your sister's hand in ma-" Chrom just held a hand up in Ricken's face and sighed. While he did disobey his orders, Maribelle would probably be dead without the interference. Trying to shove the last thing he heard out of his head, Chrom finally cracked a smile to their youngest member.

"Alright, I think you can take a step up from trainee now. Though try not to do anything like…whatever that just was."

Ricken's eyes started to gleam and he was just barely able to contain his excitement from finally hearing those words. As he turned to leave and rub it into all the kids back home that he got Chrom's respect, he noticed Maribelle giving him a rather nasty glare.

"Oh, um… uh, sorry about earlier, but at least we-" Before he could finish, Maribelle clocked him with her Mend staff. She was ready to go on about his treatment of her mount, but just sighed and shook her head. As she made her way over to Lissa, Ricken could hear her mutter a quick "thanks" before taking off. Though still confused after that, Ricken couldn't help but smile as he watched her leave.

"Whoa there, kid. I can't have you getting too close to Maribelle; you need to get hooked with Lissa!" Ricken jumped and turned around to see their tactician glaring above him. He had no idea how to respond, but Robin still stopped him from saying anything about it. "We need Lissa's kid to be the best possible sage, and we need you for that! And besides, I'm still not too sure where I want Mari to fit into my pairing list, but Chrom might be her husband. Although when Olivia shows up, maybe…"

Ricken had gotten up and began running toward the others, absolutely terrified of what Robin was planning for the rest of them.


	2. Unreal Combat

Alright, time for chapter two! Thank you to my first reviewer of the story, I'll keep those things in mind as I continue the story.

Disclaimer: I still do not own FE, credit goes to Nintendo and IS.

* * *

><p>Ricken had finally been accepted into the Shepherds, after so much time spent as a trainee, the day had arrived. He'd been told that his first actual mission would be given tomorrow morning and he could barely contain himself. But for now he'd just try to get a good night's rest for whatever was planned tomorrow. It had been hours since they rescued Maribelle and almost as long since night had fallen. It was almost midnight and everyone had turned in for the night, the exceptions being Chrom and Robin but Ricken just assumed they were talking about how awesome he was today. Even if his mission wasn't until tomorrow, Ricken couldn't help but get psyched for whatever Chrom saw fit for him to accomplish, lying awake in bed as he thought about what he'd be doing tomorrow. <em>I bet Chrom'll have me fight a bandit king! Ooh, or maybe take out a band of Risen terrorizing the countryside! Or a band of Risen bandit kings that're-"<em>

"EVERYONE UP, WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! ENEMY SOLDIERS ARE INSIDE THE BUILDING!" Startled, Ricken launched out of bed and frantically began changing. Once he slipped his hat on he dashed out the door, but immediately went back and grabbed his Elwind tome. An attack this late? It was unlikely that the Plegian army was attacking so soon after their defeat that day. Maybe the Risen were launching an attack? But the night-watch would have alerted them before any of them made it inside.

Ricken finally found everyone else outside Emmeryn's room, most of them standing tiredly around as Robin shouted battle plans to them. Ricken glanced to each sides of the hallway to see enemy soldiers had in fact made it inside, but none of them were attacking right now. He looked back at the others as Robin was angrily pushing them into formation. The enemy wasn't moving. Stahl left the group to pick up his sword. The enemy still did not move. Sumia was carefully walking around a dark mage standing smack-dab in the middle of the hall as she tried to bring her Pegasus down to the others. Still, none of the intruders had attacked.

"Excuse me," Sumia asked, poking the dark mage blocking her way. " Could you move for a second so I can go over to my friends?"

"Oh, sure. Go right ahead," Baffled, Ricken watched as the man stepped to the side and let Sumia lead her Pegasus over to the group. She thanked him and he smiled to her, then went back to his previous position.

"Okay, here's the plan," Robin finally had gotten everyone into position and was ready to get everyone moving. "Chrom and Maribelle are going to go down the right hallway, your right, mind you, and force the orange-haired thief to join us while taking out anyone in their way. Marth, you can just chill in front of Emm's door and keep anyone from running in. Ricken, you and Lissa will block the hall right in front of the door and just blast whoever tries to bum rush you. If you're about to die, run away and Stahl will take over while Lissa heals you. Everyone else is with me and we'll force our way around the remaining hall and meet up with Chrom's group. After that everyone will probably be dead, so we can all go take a bath and go back to bed. We good? Alright. Chrom, we'll start when you're ready."

Chrom gave Robin a thumbs-up and walked over to where Maribelle was waiting and began organizing his gear. Another glance down the hall and Ricken realized that the enemy wasn't moving until Chrom was ready. After a few minutes, Chrom finally gave the signal and everyone began charging. Ricken stood his ground and waited for the enemy to approach. The first one to approach the mage was a rather sorry-looking thief that scuttled over until he was about ten feet from Ricken's location and stopped moving. Taking a defensive stance, Ricken stood and waited for the thief to lash out at him. After a few seconds, the thief cleared his throat and gestured to Ricken.

"Hurry up and attack so we can go back to bed!" Lissa suddenly shouted, and Ricken started to look toward everyone else. Just as before, nobody was moving until everyone either ran a few feet or attacked. Ricken sighed and and began readying his spell. Winds stirred up around him and he launched his attack at the thief. His opponent tried to dive out of the way, but got moving too slowly and was torn apart by what might have well been a tornado of swords. Just as he fell, the rest of the opposing force began moving again and a man wielding a rather large ax came charging at Ricken. In an instant, the man had closed the distance and slammed his ax down, giving Ricken no time to dodge. Seeing no other alternative, he held his tome in front of him, prepared to sacrifice his weapon in return for his head. Despite the fact that it all happened in a moment, Lissa still had time to walk in front of Ricken and hold her staff out. Somehow her staff had blocked the attack entirely. She pushed the man back a good two feet, then jumped behind Ricken. While both of them were baffled by what just happened, Ricken recovered first and readied another spell while his opponent was on the ground, slicing right through his thin armor and left a nasty gash across his chest. It wasn't enough to kill him, but Ricken wasted no time preparing another Elwind and took the man down for good. He sighed, then looked at Lissa with nothing but admiration.

"That was amazing! If you have that kind of strength, how come you aren't fighting on the front lines? Heck, that kind of strength would make even Vaike jealous!" Ricken continued freaking out in front of Lissa, causing her to blush.

"Well, I didn't think it'd work, I just kinda... did that." Lissa smiled at Ricken, then began laughing. Confused, but still thankful all the same, Ricken laughed with her.

During this time, Robin and her group was already passing by Ricken's position and were just waiting for Chrom to fight his way through a few more foes before they regrouped and took care of the rest of the intruders. Robin smiled when she say Lissa and Ricken laughing together and began scribbling something down in her notebook.

"What are you doing?" Robin yelped and quickly slipped her book into her coat before turning around to see Stahl was staring over her shoulder.

"Stahl! You were supposed to be standing by in case Ricken was injured!" Robin immediately began scolding him when she realized he'd ignored her plan.

"I was, I just went around the hall to this side while everyone else was busy." Stahl yawned, then turned his attention back to what he'd seen a few moments ago. "You still haven't told me what _you_ were doing."

"I was recording battle results and what strategies to use in the future!"

"With doodles of Lissa and Ricken hugging each other?"

Robin stiffened, then glared at Stahl. "One word of this to anyone and I'll kill you." She ignored the smirk on his face, making a mental note to deal with him later, and lead the rest of her group to the next room. Expecting to find the leader or at least a few more enemy soldiers, Robin was surprised to see that there was absolutely nobody there. She and her team went outside the castle and found Chrom slaying a cavalier. "Oh, guess everything's been taken care of, then. Alright everyone, back inside!"

Meanwhile, Ricken and Lissa were still just standing outside Emm's room. Since they never noticed Robin pass through the hall, there wasn't any indication that they should get moving. They waited around another minute, then turned when they heard the sound of footsteps. Approaching them was the ugliest sorcerer anyone could every lay eyes on. He wore black and purple clothing that didn't cover his chest, had skin the color of mud and black hair with a white streak running through it.

"Um, can I help you?" Ricken glanced over at Lissa, who looked just as confused as he was.

"Well, you can start by a moving so I don't have to spend the rest of the night just standing here," the man snarled, apparently following the rules that Ricken still didn't even know existed.

"Seriously, what are you guys even doing?" Ricken took one step to the side, then the sorcerer ran a few feet before stopping in front of the heroes. "Um, alright then." Ricken walked forward until he was a few feet from his apparent enemy, then looked at Lissa. "So do I attack him, then?"

"Yes! Jeez, haven't you ever been in battle before?" Lissa snapped at him, then turned back to the sorcerer.

"This isn't what I'd call a normal fight, Lissa!" Ricken fired a spell that made direct contact with the sorcerer, who had been standing around since his short run. _Seriously, what is wrong with these guys? _As Ricken readied another spell, Lissa smacked him in the arm.

"What are you doing? You can't attack twice in a row yet!"

"What?! Don't you _want _me to beat this guy?" Ricken ignored what Lissa told him and threw another spell, catching his opponent off-guard. Lissa glared at him, but said nothing as Ricken continued firing Elwind after Elwind. At this point their opponent was on his knees, covered in cuts and clothing torn to shreds.

"Ricken, you're such a cheater! That's not even allowed!" Lissa pouted as Ricken prepared the finishing blow.

"Ugh, how could you have... known the plan?" Ricken launched his spell and the ugly sorcerer flew a good five feet before crashing to the ground and exploding in a cloud of smoke, which didn't seen to faze anyone but Ricken.

"Well, it's cool that we won, but you're still a big, fat cheater!" Lissa stuck her tongue out at Ricken, who only sighed and shook his head.

_Is this really what real battle is like? This'll take some getting used to..._


End file.
